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Erratic Flight Video "Toilet Bowl"

Joined
Mar 31, 2016
Messages
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Location
Bingo-UpState,NY
Get right to the Video, 15 min long


Hello all..
Just a note to update all about my problems with my Typhoon H..

Most of this post is from a email I sent to my dealer who has been Great in responding to all my Problems ! Sorry for the length of the post but wanted to get all the details out so no one repeats what they have already advised me in my previous posts.

I first ordered it In March of this year and finally received it June 7th
Tried first flight the next day after updating and doing all calibrations
and "flew" three times for a total of 7 minutes with two hard uncontrollable landings
which ending up breaking the support housing for the gimbal.
I was getting erratic flying and it would not hover in place
Never went above 12 feet ( I posted on this forum at that time)

I called Yuneec CS and explained the problem, and after sending in the flight logs. they decided to RMA it before any further damage was done.
Sent it June 9th into Yuneec for the RMA which I think was the erratic movements of the Typhoon which I'll continue to call the Toilet Bowl movement with no input from the controller.
I got it back July 1st. They sent a repair check list and on the bottom noted: "Everything is working great! didn't have any issues"

When I received the Typhoon I charged the battery and the controller,
Followed forum advice to calibrate the thing, and took it out back to try a flight.
This was Saturday morning July 2nd. It was a morning attempt because around here, it is the calmest early in the morning.
Before the first flight, I turned on the controller and then the Typhoon and checked all switches, gauges and every setting on the controller.
Armed the motors and let it sit and again checked out the gauges.
After a bit I felt everything was in order, Angel Mode on, OA Off, sats good on Typhoon and Controller.
Lifted off to about 5 feet and let it sit. It was about 20 feet away from me.
Almost immediately it started to drift.
Tried to control it but it wouldn't respond. I know about the stupid safety "Circle of Death"
so I was in Angle Mode.
Tried to land three times and on the 4th attempt I got it to touch down, it bounced, and flipped and broke two props.

Next day I had a friend who has a Drone Airforce ( no Kidding he has about 8 !) and a number of aerobatic RC planes to come over and help me see what is up with this thing. We have been flying the Phantoms together for over a year now so we are not beginners with flying drones.

We reviewed the manual, and he watched some videos on the Typhoon H calibrations.
We took it to a park close by with a long flight range, away from homes and calibrated the Typhoon Accelerometer, and compass. Felt everything was good to go and took off.
Angle mode, OA Off, plenty of Sats, about 30 ft away from us
Almost immediately it started to drift.
We flew it for about 12 minutes, tried to land it a number of times before I finally got it on the ground safely.

We went back to the park about two hours later, recalibrated everything again and flew it again.
This time he brought his video camera and he recorded the flight.
I did the same things as before and you can watch and hear my comments in the video I posted on youtube. ( Sorry for the raspy voice, allergies)

I have had this thing for a total of 5 days and flew 7 short flight for a total of 32 minutes.
I don't think my unit is safe to fly, the one thing that it does that I don't understand is the "Twitch", and the Toilet Bowl bothers me, especially when trying to land. This unit has been repaired by YUNEEC and has passed their flight tests, and still does not fly correctly.

Is it me, or is the Typhoon supposed to fly this way?
I know that this a Yuneec, and I am used to Phantoms, but I think they should fly the same.

Please watch the video and maybe comment on suggestions.

Thanks for letting me vent !
 
Get right to the Video, 15 min long


Hello all..
Just a note to update all about my problems with my Typhoon H..

Most of this post is from a email I sent to my dealer who has been Great in responding to all my Problems ! Sorry for the length of the post but wanted to get all the details out so no one repeats what they have already advised me in my previous posts.

I first ordered it In March of this year and finally received it June 7th
Tried first flight the next day after updating and doing all calibrations
and "flew" three times for a total of 7 minutes with two hard uncontrollable landings
which ending up breaking the support housing for the gimbal.
I was getting erratic flying and it would not hover in place
Never went above 12 feet ( I posted on this forum at that time)

I called Yuneec CS and explained the problem, and after sending in the flight logs. they decided to RMA it before any further damage was done.
Sent it June 9th into Yuneec for the RMA which I think was the erratic movements of the Typhoon which I'll continue to call the Toilet Bowl movement with no input from the controller.
I got it back July 1st. They sent a repair check list and on the bottom noted: "Everything is working great! didn't have any issues"

When I received the Typhoon I charged the battery and the controller,
Followed forum advice to calibrate the thing, and took it out back to try a flight.
This was Saturday morning July 2nd. It was a morning attempt because around here, it is the calmest early in the morning.
Before the first flight, I turned on the controller and then the Typhoon and checked all switches, gauges and every setting on the controller.
Armed the motors and let it sit and again checked out the gauges.
After a bit I felt everything was in order, Angel Mode on, OA Off, sats good on Typhoon and Controller.
Lifted off to about 5 feet and let it sit. It was about 20 feet away from me.
Almost immediately it started to drift.
Tried to control it but it wouldn't respond. I know about the stupid safety "Circle of Death"
so I was in Angle Mode.
Tried to land three times and on the 4th attempt I got it to touch down, it bounced, and flipped and broke two props.

Next day I had a friend who has a Drone Airforce ( no Kidding he has about 8 !) and a number of aerobatic RC planes to come over and help me see what is up with this thing. We have been flying the Phantoms together for over a year now so we are not beginners with flying drones.

We reviewed the manual, and he watched some videos on the Typhoon H calibrations.
We took it to a park close by with a long flight range, away from homes and calibrated the Typhoon Accelerometer, and compass. Felt everything was good to go and took off.
Angle mode, OA Off, plenty of Sats, about 30 ft away from us
Almost immediately it started to drift.
We flew it for about 12 minutes, tried to land it a number of times before I finally got it on the ground safely.

We went back to the park about two hours later, recalibrated everything again and flew it again.
This time he brought his video camera and he recorded the flight.
I did the same things as before and you can watch and hear my comments in the video I posted on youtube. ( Sorry for the raspy voice, allergies)

I have had this thing for a total of 5 days and flew 7 short flight for a total of 32 minutes.
I don't think my unit is safe to fly, the one thing that it does that I don't understand is the "Twitch", and the Toilet Bowl bothers me, especially when trying to land. This unit has been repaired by YUNEEC and has passed their flight tests, and still does not fly correctly.

Is it me, or is the Typhoon supposed to fly this way?
I know that this a Yuneec, and I am used to Phantoms, but I think they should fly the same.

Please watch the video and maybe comment on suggestions.

Thanks for letting me vent !
I've just watch the video until you take off, before I watch anymore, have you had that sprit level under the copter each time before take off? Are there any any metallic parts in it? Take a magnet and run it up and down and find out. If your H is booting with something metallic under it each time, this may be a reason for weird behaviour.
Mine too has some irredatic drifting, my dealer advises to wait and see it the expected FW update this week will make a change or not and if not he will ship the H back to Germany.
 
It is absolutely not normal, and either has a IMU/Compass defect if you successfully calibrated both several times. Send it back and tell them since it's the second time you want a new unit!, Ask for a manager to get what you want! Sorry for you issues!
 
  • Like
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mweir..the level is all plastic..made sure for the third time that everything was level and calibrated.
DC...I know you help a lot of members and are very knowledgeable, but should the Typhoon H be as stable as my Phantoms?
 
mweir..the level is all plastic..made sure for the third time that everything was level and calibrated.
DC...I know you help a lot of members and are very knowledgeable, but should the Typhoon H be as stable as my Phantoms?
Yea thats got something serious wrong, I've had a P2 before and apart from when my H is intermittently drifting (it just goes away in one steady direction) the H is rock stable more so than the P2 ever was, with 6 prop's over a bigger area too, it's got more effective control surfaces to keep it in place. I'd be looking at returning yours for a replacement.
 
mweir..the level is all plastic..made sure for the third time that everything was level and calibrated.
DC...I know you help a lot of members and are very knowledgeable, but should the Typhoon H be as stable as my Phantoms?
The H should be able to hold position when in a hover. If not,there IS something wrong. Demand a replacement or refund.
 
I was wondering if a crash landing due to TB can be avoided by turning off GPS, or will that not stop "bowling"??
Probably would, but the problem is that you cannot switch off GPS while in flight. If you want to fly without GPS then you have to switch it off before you take off. Yuneec really should think about introducing an Atti mode.
 
Hate to see that. That's exactly how mine started swirling on its very first flight. It should hover rock solid.
 
Get right to the Video, 15 min long


Hello all..
Just a note to update all about my problems with my Typhoon H..

Most of this post is from a email I sent to my dealer who has been Great in responding to all my Problems ! Sorry for the length of the post but wanted to get all the details out so no one repeats what they have already advised me in my previous posts.

I first ordered it In March of this year and finally received it June 7th
Tried first flight the next day after updating and doing all calibrations
and "flew" three times for a total of 7 minutes with two hard uncontrollable landings
which ending up breaking the support housing for the gimbal.
I was getting erratic flying and it would not hover in place
Never went above 12 feet ( I posted on this forum at that time)

I called Yuneec CS and explained the problem, and after sending in the flight logs. they decided to RMA it before any further damage was done.
Sent it June 9th into Yuneec for the RMA which I think was the erratic movements of the Typhoon which I'll continue to call the Toilet Bowl movement with no input from the controller.
I got it back July 1st. They sent a repair check list and on the bottom noted: "Everything is working great! didn't have any issues"

When I received the Typhoon I charged the battery and the controller,
Followed forum advice to calibrate the thing, and took it out back to try a flight.
This was Saturday morning July 2nd. It was a morning attempt because around here, it is the calmest early in the morning.
Before the first flight, I turned on the controller and then the Typhoon and checked all switches, gauges and every setting on the controller.
Armed the motors and let it sit and again checked out the gauges.
After a bit I felt everything was in order, Angel Mode on, OA Off, sats good on Typhoon and Controller.
Lifted off to about 5 feet and let it sit. It was about 20 feet away from me.
Almost immediately it started to drift.
Tried to control it but it wouldn't respond. I know about the stupid safety "Circle of Death"
so I was in Angle Mode.
Tried to land three times and on the 4th attempt I got it to touch down, it bounced, and flipped and broke two props.

Next day I had a friend who has a Drone Airforce ( no Kidding he has about 8 !) and a number of aerobatic RC planes to come over and help me see what is up with this thing. We have been flying the Phantoms together for over a year now so we are not beginners with flying drones.

We reviewed the manual, and he watched some videos on the Typhoon H calibrations.
We took it to a park close by with a long flight range, away from homes and calibrated the Typhoon Accelerometer, and compass. Felt everything was good to go and took off.
Angle mode, OA Off, plenty of Sats, about 30 ft away from us
Almost immediately it started to drift.
We flew it for about 12 minutes, tried to land it a number of times before I finally got it on the ground safely.

We went back to the park about two hours later, recalibrated everything again and flew it again.
This time he brought his video camera and he recorded the flight.
I did the same things as before and you can watch and hear my comments in the video I posted on youtube. ( Sorry for the raspy voice, allergies)

I have had this thing for a total of 5 days and flew 7 short flight for a total of 32 minutes.
I don't think my unit is safe to fly, the one thing that it does that I don't understand is the "Twitch", and the Toilet Bowl bothers me, especially when trying to land. This unit has been repaired by YUNEEC and has passed their flight tests, and still does not fly correctly.

Is it me, or is the Typhoon supposed to fly this way?
I know that this a Yuneec, and I am used to Phantoms, but I think they should fly the same.

Please watch the video and maybe comment on suggestions.

Thanks for letting me vent !
From someone who has had the exact same problem on a DJI Phantom, let me say that the repair guys at Yuneec need to go back to diagnostic school.

There are so many videos out on Youtube which explain the reason why drones get the toilet bowl effect. Your GPS says one thing and your compass another. Your compass is supposed to provide true north and your IMU/accelerometer is trying to sort everything out. When it tries to sort out the conflict, you get the toilet bowl effect.

This can happen when one has a bad compass calibration & it can be fixed with a good compass calibration. The problem is when the Typhoon no longer writes the good compass information. This is why you'll hear some people on this forum highly suggest to do a compass calibration once and if everything is good, don't mess with it again unless you travel far far away.

Finally, as I've mentioned on many posts..... Trying to land a Toilet bowl flying drone is just asking for trouble as it will tip over. The alternative is to catch it (this is another reason everyone should learn how to catch drones and be comfortable with it).
 
Finally, as I've mentioned on many posts..... Trying to land a Toilet bowl flying drone is just asking for trouble as it will tip over. The alternative is to catch it (this is another reason everyone should learn how to catch drones and be comfortable with it).

Looking back at my incident, I really wish I would have caught the thing by hand. My brother, who was there when it happened even said he wished he would have caught the thing. Would have been better off not having a crashed unit.
 
mweir..the level is all plastic..made sure for the third time that everything was level and calibrated.
DC...I know you help a lot of members and are very knowledgeable, but should the Typhoon H be as stable as my Phantoms?
I have all models of the Phantoms and the H I have is just as stable as them all, save the P4, but with 2 IMU's and 2 Compasses what can you expect! Yes, the H should be as stable as the P2, P3's easily. The problem you have with your H, Is beyond "Stable" you have radical twitching and circling, which is signs of a bad IMU/Accelerometer and /or compass. Either from poor calibration(Which I am sure you did good ones) or defective ones. Either that, or you were flying right on top of a Gold Mine!
 
Chilcotin..Yes.. No Camera or gimbal..calibrated everything without those attached.. Yuneec CS said the H can do everything but take photos/videos without them attached. I decided not to fly with them in case it crashed so i wouldn't break the mount again.
 
From what I see, this is extremely likely a compass offset issue, classic effect The imu appears to be working fine because you are able to get it to a pretty stable hover, and I bet it works fine without gps if you haven't tried that. Compass may not be saving calibration. There could be a wire situated to close. It may be loose. Try playing with the GUI pointing mag north and see what it says....try tapping it as well.
Or I may be totally out to lunch:eek:
 
  • Like
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Chilcotin...What is the difference between IMU and GUI ?

When you say "Try playing with the GUI pointing mag north"
do you mean when I calibrate the Compass?
FYI..Since I first got my H. I have always calibrated my compass with the Nose of the H
pointing Mag North for the first turn. If I remember, when rotating the H to do the calibration,
It starts off with the nose pointing North and with each rotation the H turns and ends up with the last rotation pointing north for the final calibration.
 
Chilcotin...What is the difference between IMU and GUI ?

When you say "Try playing with the GUI pointing mag north"
do you mean when I calibrate the Compass?
FYI..Since I first got my H. I have always calibrated my compass with the Nose of the H
pointing Mag North for the first turn. If I remember, when rotating the H to do the calibration,
It starts off with the nose pointing North and with each rotation the H turns and ends up with the last rotation pointing north for the final calibration.
GUI is the Yuneec program for making adjustments to the ST16 control functions, and An IMU is a single unit in the electronics module which collects angular velocity and linear acceleration data which is sent to the main processor. (Flight Stability) Found in most platforms with GPS and Compass.
 
DC...Thanks in advance for your patience ..but with the Accelerometer calibration I'm Confused !

I have been reading the forum on the Accelerometer calibration and there seams to be different opinions on how to do it.
Different Manuals, different ways
Ver2
STEP2) Make sure the FLIGHT MODE switch is in the middle position.
Tap the GPS Calibration button, and choose 'ACCELEROMETER'
Ver3
STEP 2) Make sure the FLIGHT MODE switch is in the middle position. Tap the GPS Calibration button, switch off GPS and choose 'ACCELER- OMETER'.

"When successful it blinks purple/white or green/white depending on flight mode you're in"
If the MODE switch is in the middle position, way does it say "Depending on flight mode you're in"

Also...DO you turn off the GPS or not?

Ver 3 manual says to then " Push the throttle joystick gently above the middle position to take off the aircraft. Meanwhile, keep the aircraft hovering manually until the main LED indicator blinks red, green and blue slowly again."

I did not see this in Ver 1 or 2
Do we take off or not?

Which is the correct way???

I really want to solve this if I can before sending it back to Yuneec or getting a replacement
 

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